The Stonem Siblings
by That Girl55
Summary: All they've ever wanted since that night at the sports hall was to go somewhere where nobody knew what a Stonem was. TonyXEffy Oneshot, incest


Tony first noticed it when he was carrying her back from that sports hall in the middle of nowhere, completely naked himself and her passed out in his arms.

She was shaking, either that or he was shaking and they were so close that if he looked down he wouldn't be able to see the line dividing the two bodies anymore, because he was cold and that meant she had to be cold and he wanted to keep her warm. He wanted to keep her safe, but time and time again he had proven that he could never do that.

Tonight, in fact, happened to be one of those times.

And when Sid finally comes he lays his sister on his chest as if she is sleeping, because maybe then he can pretend, at least for a little while, that she is safe and she is his and she's not dying and it's not his fault. When everyone arrives at the hospital and they're sitting around her body and Tony waits for it to be declared that the thing he loved more than life itself was dead, his mother looks at him, tears in her eyes.

_"Oh Tony, she's your little sister." _

And Tony's not sure whether she's talking about the strong possibility that Tony slipped her the drugs, or if maybe, just maybe, his mother had slipped into his head for a moment and seen how he felt about her, how he loved her.

* * *

When Effy first notices it, she's throwing up.

She's physically getting sick and she's half expecting Tony to come walking in any moment and hold her hair and rub her back and carry her back to her bed when she's done. But then she remembers that Tony is in the next room over, in a sleep he may never wake up from and she's not vomiting because she's drank too much, but she's vomiting because her shirt is stained red with Tony's blood.

She pulls herself off the floor and flushes the toilet, quickly making her way over to Tony's room. She wants to climb into bed with him, like she did when she was little, and feel his arms wrapped around her and snuggle in close and live off the warmth of his body next to hers. she strips down to her bra and underwear, because it'd be weird getting into bed with Tony in clothes drowning in his blood, and curls up close next to him. Sure, when their parents catch them in the morning, it might be a little awkward; but she's Effy Stonem, and she doesn't care. Tony obviously doesn't care either, because he doesn't complain.

But then Effy remembers that Tony _can't _complain, and tears start to prick at her eyes and she wants to cry but her tears are cold and Tony's body is already so cold, not warm like she remembers. So she curls into his cold, familiar chest and she sucks her tears back in and falls asleep there.

_"Oh Tony, she's your little sister." _

The words ring in Effy's head as she drifts into a dream, and she's not quite sure where she heard them or maybe it's not even Déjà vu at all, maybe it's god, if there is a god, and it's telling her to stop, telling her to stop loving Tony like she does or at least like she think she does because this is her punishment for it, sleeping next to a cold body that might not even be alive anymore-and realizing that body is her favorite brother's.

* * *

He was always the one that read to her, but it's different after the accident.

Effy would hear him scream, hear him call her name and she would run into the room, already knowing what to do. Grabbing the book off the dresser, Effy sat beside him, tucking him into bed as if he was the little sibling, and reading to him about the greek gods and goddesses, about a world that he used to know, before he became 'stupid,' like he told Maxxie.

But what Effy doesn't know is that he doesn't need some children's book to ward off nightmares, he only needs her. She doesn't know that the nightmares aren't about buses or bleeding or the feeling of complete helplessness, they're about her. They're about how she might have cradled his body after he fell, about how she would have looked colored red with his blood and how her face must have contorted when she saw him get hit.

They're about her screaming his name.

So no, he doesn't need a storybook to rid himself of nightmares, he only needs Effy. But she's his little sister, and he can't say that.

* * *

He was always the one who made sure she got what she needed, but now it was her turn.

As Effy's father jetted off to France on 'business,' and her mother locked herself in her bedroom, it was Effy who took care of Tony. Washing their clothes, making them dinner, it was a wonder she did it all.

Tony wanted to help, he would if he could, but instead he was subject to watch as she inexpertly hung the clothes on the line, as she tried to make chicken without burning the house down. He watched as she tucked him into bed every night and then finished vacuuming the house, so it would be clean before they left for school in the morning.

Effy didn't care about it, though, because she would do it all and more for Tony. She would wash the clothes because Tony needed something to wear in the morning, she'd make dinner because he couldn't well go get takeout now could he? She'd vacuum the house so he wouldn't be embarrassed, so he wouldn't have to tell his older and richer friends that his mom has been sitting in her room for the past week popping pills like they're Tic Tacs.

And one night, while they watch their mother through her drug-induced sleep, Effy thinks about her father (probably fucking some stripper in France right now) and her mother (killing herself with the painkillers more than any real pain) and Michelle (who hasn't seen Tony since he left the hospital) and remarks "love is good for absolutely nothing."

He replies, "You don't fool me, Effy Stonem."

Effy knows it's true because he's her brother and she reads stories to him every night and she takes care of him and it was his blood she washed off her hands that night and she is a part of him and he is a part of her and in that moment as she watches her mother's labored breathing, Tony takes her lips in his and uses parts of his body in ways that she wasn't even sure had come back to him yet.

* * *

Their relationship is a blur of sex and stolen kisses and 'I love you's uttering through their lips behind locked doors and everyone wonders why Effy has stopped hooking up with random guys at parties and why Tony has let Michelle go so easily. It's the kind of thing that is inevitable, really, but yet nobody would jump to conclusions like that despite how they'd see Tony look at his sister in her party clothes or how Effy would make eye contact with only him as she danced with another man.

And then the parties stopped and Tony went to college and Effy's world broke down on top of her, yet to everyone around her she was just returning to her old ways. She went to school and she met JJ and Cook and Freddie, all of which Tony was not happy about. When he found out about Cook, he threatened to go after him. But Effy, because she is Effy and although she loves drama Cook is bigger than Tony and she loves Tony more than drama, told him that Cook was innocent.

But then came the camping trip, the big fun trip that Freddie was planning that was supposed to be the best time of their lives.

The next morning she doesn't remember much of anything except here she is, washing blood off her hands once again, but this time it's in a stream not a sink and she's wondering if it's Tony's for a second but then she remembers it's Katie's. She's throwing up again and she's still expecting Tony to come pick her up and carry her to bed but Tony is hundreds of miles away being a grown up and it's Cook who carries her to a car and drives off, keeping her safe.

She thinks she loves him, fora while, but she knows she doesn't really. It's Tony she loves, it's always been that way. She when she stops over in a town that Cook says is 'special,' she runs off for a minute under the alibi of finding a restroom, but she really calls Tony.

"Hello?"

"Tony, I did something bad." She sniffles, and she feels like she's five again.

"Oh god, how bad? Effy, are you okay, do you need me to come get you?" His voice sounds strained like he's choking almost and Effy's practically in shock because her parents haven't told him yet or maybe nobody knows, maybe Katie forgot and everyone else just said she fell and Effy wants to ask all of this but instead all she can get out is:

"You won't love me anymore."

And he lets out a strange strangled laugh and you can hear the honesty in his voice when he speaks.

"I'll always love you, Effy. Now tell me where you are, love, and I'll come pick you up."

And it doesn't matter that he's hundreds of miles away because he's her big brother and she's his little sister and he'd do anything for her, but even that's just on the surface. They're Stonems and they're strange and the only people that will ever understand them enough to really love them is each other, and that has always been their downfall.

So nobody questions when all of Tony's money is missing from his bank account, and his little sister hasn't been seen in weeks. Effy always wanted to disappear, it only made sense that Tony disappear with her. Because they're the Stonem siblings and all they've ever wanted since that night at the sports hall was to go somewhere where nobody knew what a Stonem was, and they were just kids in love instead of a daytime soap opera.


End file.
